Energy efficiency has become a major driving force in appliance innovation. For example, there are several available ratings for appliances that depict an appliance's energy utilization over the course of a typical year. When considering energy efficiency in an appliance, several factors contribute to energy use, including heating devices, pumps, motors, lighting, and other components.
In appliance lighting, an on/off switch may be used to directly control power consumption of the lighting system. However, increasingly desirable and aesthetically pleasing lighting effects, such as fade-in, fade-out, partial illumination, and other lighting effects make it difficult to utilize a single switch to both control advanced functionality and ensure little to no power is expended while lighting is turned off.
It would be useful to provide a system to illuminate portions of appliances that overcome one or more of the above issues. In particular, it would be advantageous to have a system to illuminate portions of appliances with limited or zero standby power use.